The number of personal computers and other typing keyboard equipped devices being used at work and at home continues to increase at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, this increase in use of keyboards has also resulted in a growing number of injuries which are linked to the use of personal computers and other keyboard equipped devices, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Accordingly, one of the recent goals in the design of these electronic products is to reduce and/or eliminate the number of use related injuries. Some examples of recent designs to accomplish this goal are ergonomically designed keyboards and pointing devices, such as computer-mice.
A second important consideration with portable and small form-factor stationary devices incorporating typing keyboards is the ease of use of pointing devices. In many notebook computers, the lack of space for a full-size track-pad compels the use of "pointing sticks" embedded in the keyboard keys or small track balls, pressure sensitive discs or other pointing devices that are unsatisfactory for many users.
One of the problems with designing portable and small form-factor electronic products is to reduce the number of use-related injuries. Typically, this goal is at odds with the competing concern of minimizing the overall size of the product during storage and/or transport. Often designs which would help to reduce use-related injuries would make the portable or small stationary devices unnecessarily large and cumbersome.
To the extent that portable and small form-factor device redesigns have addressed keyboard ergonomics and pointing device ease-of-use issues, they have been limited to larger-size products which can incorporate a "fixed full-size keyboard palm-rest" into the surface of the main housing. However, the same problems of injury prevention and satisfactory ease of use of pointing devices still exists for the smaller size portable personal computers and other portable and stationary electronic devices, such as keyboard-equipped organizers and palmtop computers, as well as for very small stationary computers and for screen phones. As previously noted, minimizing the size of these devices during storage or transport is a primary design issue and has been at odds with ergonomic design practices.